Year 5 Opal Class

Miss Antony	Miss Bond	Mrs Bowman
Class Teacher	Teaching Assistant	Teaching Assistant (PM)

This half term year 5 explored air resistance by planning, conducting and evaluating a parachute experiment. They worked in their groups to create parachutes with different surface areas to answer the question “Does the size of a parachute affect the time it takes for it to fall to the ground?”

They worked well in their teams and was able to reflect on their experience afterwards!

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This has been a creative term for year 5! This term Year 5 had the chance to create live models of our solar system. They explored the movement of the planets around the sun, they explored the relationship between the sun, earth and the moon, the found out why we have day and night.  Year 5 showed great teamwork and communication skills and should be very proud of the work they’ve completed! They were able to recall and share facts about their chosen part, work wonderfully as a team and perform confidently to the rest of the class. 

During the half term children had the opportunity to create 3D model of the water cycle and bring them in to show the class. Everyone did an amazing job at making a water cycle that was unique and sharing key information about the water cycle!

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Year 5 have had a busy Spring Term so far. They have prepared resources for the school Science Fair at the beginning of January where they showcased their deep and extensive knowledge of the planets and our solar system. Now in their Science lessons, they are investigating insulation as part of their topic looking at the different properties of materials. They have been conducting tests and investigations and recording their observations and results accurately.

They have also enjoyed learning about instruments and music associated with South and West Africa and they have been playing a range of drums using authentic rhythm patterns.

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In DT, we have been exploring and creating the mechanisms of pop-up books. We have been designing our own, 4-part, pop up books based of a children’s book of our choice.  We have experimented with sliders, pivots and layers to make our pop-up books exciting!

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During our guided reading lesson, we have been bringing the characters to life by using still images and monologues.

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This term, year 5 has been exploring different life cycles in science! They had the opportunity to showcase their findings through a performance! They impressed their peers by sharing their knowledge in comedic and musical ways. They used scientific vocabulary to describe each stage of a life cycle, it was wonderful to see everyone’s confidence grow through the duration of this unit.

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In history, the children have been learning about the Ancient Maya Civilisation. They have been busy comparing the lifestyles and climate of people in Ancient Maya to the people during the Anglo Saxons period through debates and illustrations.  

We explored our history topic more in guided reading. We have been reading the book “Curse of the Maya”, the children brought the characters and scenes to life by recreating the scenes through drama.